joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "ALHADJI BARAU" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <alhadjibarau@secretarias.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 08:31:07 -0500
Subject: SEASON'S GREETINGS

My name is Barau i work with a bank in Africa,i am seeking your indulgence to transfer the sum of $21.5m United States Dollars to your account,the funds in question is an over inflated contract payment,the contractor has long been paid,the balance is what is in our treasury department left to be trasfered to any foreign account.

If you are interested kindly send me the following to enable me commence process of transfering the funds and my true identity will also be revealed to you as soon as you indicate interest.
1,Your full names
2,telephone number

As soon as this info is received i shall give you details on procedure of transfer.
Thanks,
Barau

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

Anti-fraud resources: